(Getting to) Hue

It is indeed warmer, as I am currently in central Vietnam, in the town of Hue. I continue to be healthy, with my fingers crossed. It seems as though the flu is truly a thing of the past. Getting here,however, was not the most enjoyable experience. We were supposedly taking the nice "tourist bus" from Hanoi to Hue, with only one other stop in Ninh Binh. What do you know, but magically that one stop expanded into one of the side of the road for a large bundle from a guy driving a moto, and multiple stops to pick up people seemingly in the middle of the road.

This resulted, when we arrived in Ninh Binh, in a totally overcrowded bus. The bus driver solved this by throwing several people off the bus. Why he let them on in the first place when he knew the bus was full is beyond me. Even still, several backpackers couldn't get on the bus, and several more had to spend the 13 hour drive lying in the aisle. To say they were not pleased about this arrangement would bean understatement. Probably the most comfortable person on the bus was the guy who pulled out his hammock and went to sleep in the aisle, seemingly oblivious to the numerous people trying to step over and around him.

I tried to deal with the situation in good humor, as things could have been SO much worse. However, I thought we were paying enough money to get past the "chicken bus" mentality. When I saw the actual chicken bus, I realized we were about 5 steps up from there. I cannot imagine spending 13 hours standing up in the aisle of a bus, not to mention it would be incredible unsafe.But we arrived and were assaulted by the usual barrage of touts and their hotels and tour packages. That is always my least favorite part of travelling: arriving hot and tired in a place lugging your huge backpack and trying to find a place to stay so you can get off the street.

Hue is an old walled city, although in actuality nothing here is older than 200 years. Hue is also the only town in South Vietnam to have been occupied by the Viet Cong for several weeks early in the war '68 or '69. There is a lovely forbidden city which was home to the rulers of Vietnam before the overthrow in 1945. Otherwise, Hue is not that interesting. I did have an amusing experience at lunch, when I asked to see the kittens from the owner's obviously nursing cat. She brought me one; like all the animals in Vietnam it was cute, but quite sickly and desperately needed a bath. When we were leaving she asked if I wanted to take the kittens with me!! Tempting, but impossible.

We encountered people selling all sorts of Vietnam War (here it is called the American War) memorabilia. One boy said his father had been collecting it from the jungle for the last 30 years. Although they had lots of ammunition, body armor, and weapons, the part that creeped me out were all the dogtags. Although I don't know for sure that all these men died in the war, it's a very stark reminder of the recent past. We wound up getting a cyclo (basically bicycle rickshaws) tour of the old city. The main driver had this whole story about how his father was killed in the war, which caused him to become a devout Buddhist and renounce violence. I have to wonder if it was true, or made up for the tourists (I don't mean to sound so cynical, but it is entirely possible). At the end, they just wanted to get more money out of us, but I did still think the tour was a valuable experience.

I have arrived in Hoi An without the Germans, although Andi and Tassi are coming tomorrow. Sven, alas, has to head back home. They are touring the DMZ and Ho Chi Minh Trail today. I will wander around Hoi An and set up a cooking class for tomorrow, I think.